Creating and Managing Transactions for Balances
When you've created a Balance for an end customer Account, you can then create Transactions for the Balance to flexibly manage and maintain the Balance amount. The Balance amount will determine how much credit your customer has available to be drawn-down against any usage or other charges due for the period the Balance is active for the Account - and possibly for longer if you choose to allow rollovers on the Balance amount.
When Transactions have been added to an Account Balance, the Balance transactions panel on the Balance details page in the Console acts as a ledger for tracking credit and debit Transactions made against the Balance.
This topic explains how to create Transactions for Balances and how to work with the Balance transactions ledger:
Important: Understanding Billing for Balances! Please review the Understanding and Managing Billing for Balances topic above before creating Transactions for Balances on your end-customer Accounts.
Note: Transaction Schedules! As well as creating single Transactions for a Balance, you can set up a Transaction Schedule for a Balance on an Account. This allows you to add multiple Transactions of a specific type to a Balance at regular daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly intervals over a specified time period. See Setting Up Transaction Schedules for Balances for more details.
Creating Transactions for Balances
Important! Before you can create a Transaction for a Balance on an Account, you must first set up Transaction Types for your Organization - see Creating Transaction Types.
To create a Transaction for a Balance:
1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to add a Transaction to a Balance. The Account details page opens with the Overview tab selected.
3. Select the Balances tab.
4. Select the Name text of the Balance you want to create a Transaction for. The Balance details page opens. The Balance transactions panel lists any Transactions that have been created for the Balance.
5. On the Balance transactions panel, select Create balance transaction. The Create page opens.
6. Enter the Balance transaction details:
Transaction type. Use the drop-down to select the Transaction Type. (Required)
Amount. The amount of the Transaction. (Required)
Transaction date. The date the Transaction will be logged for the Balance. (Optional).
If omitted, then current date is used.
Applied date. The date the Transaction will be applied to the Balance. (Optional)
If omitted, then current date is used.
Description. A description for the Transaction. (Optional)
Warning: You must create at least one Transaction Type for your Organization before you can create a Balance Transaction! If you haven't, the Transaction type drop-down will not be available and you'll see a warning:
Select the create a new Transaction Type hotlink text provided. This takes you directly to the Create page to create the Transaction Type you want to use for the Balance Transaction. See Creating Transaction Types.
When you create the new Transaction Type, you are taken directly back to the Create Balance Transaction page and the Transaction Type is selected.
7. If the amount paid differs from the Transaction or the currency of payment differs from the currency defined for the Balance, you can optionally use the Balance transactions settings panel to enter:
Currency. The currency in which payment was made.
Amount. The payment amount.
This allows you to record the fact that an end customer has been credited for a Balance amount using another currency/amount. For example, you might credit an end customer in the amount of 200 USD for a payment they've made in virtual currency credits of X amount.
8. Select Create balance transaction. You are returned to the Balance details page where the new Transaction has been added to the Balance.
9. If you want to add further Transactions of different types to a Balance, repeat steps 5 to 8:
The Transactions panel provides a ledger for the Balance. In this example:
We've manually added two credit Transactions of different amounts to a Balance.
There is a third debit Transaction, which shows an amount billed against the Account was drawn-down against the Balance.
Source. Note that in each case the Source column in the Transactions ledger identifies who or what was responsible for the Transaction being added - such as a User or a Bill.
If a Transaction is generated by a Transaction Schedule you've set up for a Balance, then the Source will be identified as: <Schedule Name> (Scheduler). See Setting Up Transaction Schedules for Balances.
For further details on working with the Transactions panel ledger, see the following section.
Working with the Balance Transactions Ledger
The Balance transactions panel on the Balance details page provides a ledger for tracking credit and debit Transactions for the Balance, including billed amounts drawn-down against the Balance:
You can read-off details of each Transaction:
Transaction date. The date the Transaction was logged for the Balance.
Applied date. The date of application of the Transaction amount against the Balance.
Note that in the case of a manual Transaction - such as when an Organization User adds a top-up credit amount to an Account Balance, the Transaction date and the Applied date will often coincide. However, in cases such as billed amount debit draw-down against the Balance, these dates often differ. In the above example, the Applied date for the billing draw-down item is the date of the Bill responsible for the draw-down against the Balance.
Description. The description entered for the specific Transaction of that type.
Transaction type.
Source. The source of the Transaction:
If a manually credited/debited Transaction, this is shown as Organization User.
If a billing Transaction, this is shown as Bill with a hotlink text link allowing you to open the Bill responsible directly:
Amount. The Transaction credit/debit amount,
Balance. Shows the running total for the Balance as credit or debit Transactions are registered against the Balance amount.
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